International experts in the refining sector have lauded the SONARA expansion and extension project currently going on Limbe.

The experts were speaking at the end of a three-day meeting which took place in Hotel SAWA in Douala and after making a tour round the SONARA installations.

Before the visit to the SONARA Project site, SONARA’s Gladys Ebanga in the presence of the General Manager of SONARA, Ibrahim Talba Malla and other close aids, made a power point presentation of the SONARA Extension project. She carefully explained to her guests what the project is all about and what the objectives of the project are.

Her presentation was followed by a technical presentation by Dr. Takere, who touched on specificities and technical details of the project.

According to Dr. Derrick Takere, at the end of phase two of the project, the company would have been able to satisfy its current demand.

The experts were then treated to a tour of the refinery and the installations in the project site. At the end of the over one hour tour, the visitors were visible satisfied with what was going on.

A majority of them who spoke to THE SUN lauded the Project and its objectives as well as the rate at which work was going on in the site.

Though they refused to make comparisons, the delegation from Ivory Coast and Gabon expressed full satisfaction with the strides taken by the company to expand production.

SONARA General Manager, Ibrahim Talba Malla was visibly honoured by the presence of the experts. He said the problems in every refinery are unique and hopes that their association will keep on finding solutions to such problems.

The theme for this year’s meeting was project management in the refining sector and brought together representatives from Gabon, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, amongst others as well as expert companies like Foster Wheeler and TECHNNIP.

Speaking during the opening ceremony, the Director of Safety and Environment of SONARA, Dr. Takere , on behalf of the General Manager of SONARA, said the topic was very crucial and that the calibre of participants and their expertise will be of great help since experience sharing would be the order of the day.

Dr. Takere added that SONARA has a lot of experiences since they are involved in a major extension project which is estimated at about FCFA 500 Billion, intended to double the capacity of the refinery and to build more complex units.

Dr. Takere told Journalists that the other companies present have had similar projects such as Ivory Coast, hence “some of the problems which we have encountered like them, would see solutions by the end of the meeting”.

He however felt bad that Nigerian Oil Companies were not part of the meeting due to the blockage of the borders after the Ebola outbreak. “It is a big loss for the conference because they had 12 members out of their four refineries, we have however decided to have a video conference to solve the problem of their absence” he said.

Meanwhile, the Strategic and Technical Director of the Ivorian Refinery, SIR, Patrice Kofi, said project management is very important in the construction of refinery, since modifications and maintenance have to be taken into consideration in the construction.

He added that their working group treats operational and technical problems in refineries.

So far, he said the group has worked on many other domains but they decided to work on project management this year because SONARA for example, is currently working on a Major project while in Ivory Coast, the SIR has also engaged on many projects and will be shutting down temporarily for works.

He added that it is a platform for those who have executed projects; those who wish to execute projects meet and see the way forward especially since engineers who are part of these projects are attending the meeting.

One of the participants, Divine Ebong Pende, Head of Service for Interpretation and Translation, told THE SUN that it was a necessary sine qua non and privilege to be part of the meeting. According to Ebong, the experience sharing part of the meeting will definitely lead to mutual benefits of the participants.

Ebong Pende thanked and lauded the General Manager of SONARA Ibrahim Talba Malla for accepting to play host to the African Refiners Association. Germain Kouma, from SIR, said they were in Cameroon to do three presentations.

The first on the studies they have carried out in Gabon and to see how it could work in other countries, the second according to him, is on risk prevention in project sites and finally share experience in the unforeseen issues that occur in the project cycle and its consequences such as delay etc.

Daouda Diop, Project Director of Foster Wheeler, France, who is also the General Manager of Foster Wheeler Cameroon, the Company in charge of the SONARA project, equally told the press that his company is presently supervising the construction work in SONARA since the study phase had ended.

He said the work is above 70 percent completed as far as construction is concerned. He explained that his company applied to work on the project with the objective of raising standards.

According to Daouda Diop, his company has a policy of working with Africans to develop and execute projects in Africa.

On the difficulties encountered so far, he said it is not often easy to have a project like the SONARA project in Cameroon; hence problems of specifications and logistics and transportation of materials will always exist though they are trying to overcome them as much as possible.

For three days, the experts were schooled on phases and basic elements in a project in a presentation done by Herve Hameau of Foster Wheeler and Ronald Duigan of TECNIP

Other presentations focused on Key Roles in Project Leadership, Project Planning, Organisation of the Study Phase, etc.

Before the Limbe expedition, the group had organised series of meetings in other countries. One of them was the Workshop on Equipment organised in South Africa in 2013.